Real James Bonds don’t use the licence to kill

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“It was part of his profession to kill people ... As a secret agent who held the rare Double-O prefix — the licence to kill in the Secret Service — it was his duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened, it happened. Regret was unprofessional.”

Ian Fleming, Goldfinger James Bond has finally been exposed as a fraud. Professor Keith Jeffery’s monumental history of MI6 from 1909 to 49 has scuppered one of the oldest myths about British Intelligence — namely, that killing people is routine.

In Ian Fleming’s novels, Bond earns his 00 status by assassinating a Japanese